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Vol. 80/No. 1 January 4, 2016
Demand SKorea gov’t free union president!
Hankyoreh/Shin So-young
A growing international campaign is demanding the release of Han
Sang-gyun, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who
was arrested Dec. 10 for participating in protests against government
attacks on South Korean workers’ rights. He was taken prisoner, (above),
at the Jogye Buddhist Temple, where he had taken refuge.
After a Nov. 14 demonstration of 100,000 against a bill aimed at
weakening South Korea’s labor laws, the government charged Han was
responsible for attacks on police, obstruction of public affairs and
blocking traffic.
“The police have added one more charge, sedition, with a penalty of up
to 10 years in prison,” Mikyung Rhu, international director of the KCTU,
said by phone from Seoul Dec. 21. “The last time the anti-sedition law
was used was 29 years ago, under the military dictatorship.”
At least 24 other KCTU members have also been arrested, she said. “Some
of them are charged with harboring a criminal because they surrounded
Han during a Nov. 14 press conference and prevented his arrest.”
“I am fighting to stop the government’s regressive labor policies, which
will make it easy to fire workers,” Han said just hours before his
arrest. “This the real crime.”
The International Trade Union Confederation, International Transport
Workers’ Federation, the AFL-CIO in the U.S. and the Federation of
Korean Trade Unions — the other union federation in South Korea — are
among those demanding the charges be dropped.
Send messages demanding the government free Han and other jailed
unionists to Korean President Park Guen-hye, 1 Cheongwadae-ro,
Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-820, Republic of Korea; or email:
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Send copies to kctucampaign@xxxxxxxxx.
— SETH GALINSKY
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